West of Scotland winners over southside rivals Whitecraigs

Alan Paterson

West of Scotland made a winning return to action when they got the better of Whitecraigs in their first league match since December 2.

West were on top in the opening exchanges at Newton Mearns, keeping Whitecraigs well under control and making inroads into the home defence.

The Red and Yellow defensive line that was only breached once in the second half

A defensive mistake led to Angus Thomson picking up the ball with little defensive cover and he easily scored in the corner. Pete Burns converted and West led 7-0.

A Whitecraigs knock-on was then picked up by Darren Allan who outpaced some scant defence to score under the posts. Burns added the extras and West were looking

comfortable at 14-0.

Whitecraigs are never an easy proposition, however, with a powerful pack and after a penalty taken to touch and a catch and drive, West brought down the driving maul just short of the line.

James Harley was sin binned, and having elected for the scrum, Whitecraigs scored a pushover try through lock O’Neill, winger Adair converting to narrow the lead to 14-7.

The home side then pressed home the man advantage, a series of pick and drives drawing the defence in and then they spun the ball wide to Adair who scored in the corner but couldn’t convert his own try.

Once the yellow card was over, West hit back. From a scrum Ross McAulay ran strongly through the home defence to release Burns who outsped the remaining defence to score under the posts, comverting his own try to make the score 21-12.

Whitecraigs scored a penalty via centre Snyman after an offside straight in front of the posts to make it 21-15 at half-time.

Unfortunately, injuries totally dominated the second half, but in between the stoppages Robbie Greenhalgh scored his customary wonder try, speeding past the entire defence to score under the posts, Burns converting.

Whitecraigs reduced the deficit through an unconverted Conor Drummond try by West ran out bonus point winners.